Government to delete term "prostitute" from law books

Thu Jun 28, 2007 2:38pm BST

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LONDON (Reuters) - The government is proposing to remove the term "prostitute" from the criminal statutes because it carries too much stigma.

Instead, a new bill that the Justice Ministry has drafted refers simply to persons who sell sex persistently -- defined as twice or more in three months.

"We just wanted to remove the stigma of the label 'common prostitute'," said a spokeswoman for the Justice Ministry.

"It's been around since 1824, so it was a bit outdated. It just wasn't really helpful to label people."

The new bill introduces measures to try to get sex workers out of the industry, and in effect decriminalises prostitution for those who are not considered persistent.

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